The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a mapped fan zone cooling system in an IHS.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As IHSs become more powerful, the cooling system in the IHS utilizes more and more power in order to cool the IHS components of the IHS. In an attempt to make these cooling systems more efficient, IHS components may be associated or ‘mapped’ to a fan which may be located adjacent the mapped IHS component. The mapping of an IHS component to a fan results in only that fan being operated when the IHS component needs to be cooled, which saves power relative to systems that activate all the fans in the IHS when an IHS component needs cooling. However, such conventional IHS component/fan mapping suffers from several disadvantages.
For example, with an IHS component mapped to a fan, that IHS component is typically only cooled by increasing the fan speed for that fan. This has been found to limit local airflow potential and result in high power consumption by the fan, as fan power consumption is a cubic of fan speed. Furthermore, while maximum total airflow may be achieved by operating all the fans in the IHS at full speed, local maximum airflow is not always achieved in the same manner (i.e., with the mapped fan operating at full speed.) Thus, in some situations the fan that is mapped to an IHS component may not be able to properly cool the IHS component, and in order to meet the IHS component thermal requirements it may be necessary to then operate all the fans in the IHS at full speed, which is inefficient in terms of power consumption. Further still, there are instances where mapping IHS components to respective fans will cause changes in the airflow balance in regions of the IHS such that airflow in regions of the IHS may become negative, positive, or stagnant depending on fan speed differences in the rear and mid-chassis fans, the system fans, the Power Supply Unit (PSU) fans, and/or other fans in the system.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved cooling system.